IMF Board Approves Release of $700 Million Loan Tranche for Pakistan

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Thursday completed the first review under Pakistan’s Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) and allowed for an immediate disbursement of around $700 million to Pakistan.

The announcement was made by the Ministry of Finance in a post on X. It further said that the latest disbursement would bring the total disbursements under the SBA to $1.9 billion.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the 1st review and allows for an immediate disbursement of SDR 528 million (around US$ 700 million) bringing the total disbursements under the SBA to US$ 1.9 billion.

— Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan (@Financegovpk) January 11, 2024

Commenting on the development, Topline Securities CEO Mohammed Sohail said the IMF funding along with recent inflows from multilateral lenders will further help the Pakistani Rupee that is fairly stable since last few months.

“This new tranche will also help in getting rollovers from few friendly countries and will ease external debt repayment pressure.” he added.

Back in November, IMF staff and the Pakistani authorities reached a staff-level agreement on the first review under Pakistan’s Stand-By Arrangement (SBA), subject to approval by the IMF’s Executive Board.

At the time, IMF said the agreement supports the authorities’ commitment to advance the planned fiscal consolidation, accelerate cost-reducing reforms in the energy sector, complete the return to a market-determined exchange rate, and pursue state-owned enterprise and governance reforms to attract investment and support job creation, while continuing to strengthen social assistance.